CoastersRZ

I believe the number that the park has used is "more than 5 million". I admit that the lights are impressive. There are a few areas that I feel could use some work and additional lights (Planet Snoopy and the Twelve Days of Christmas come to mind). As far as the number of rides goes, I agree with Ryan that the point of Winterfest is more about the overall atmosphere and entertainment than riding rides. It is not just about riding rides in the cold. It is the whole park atmosphere that is amazing at Winterfest. I have been to Winterfest five times this year so far, and have only been on Mystic Timbers twice and zero times on Flight of Fear. There is just so much to see and do, and it isn`t about the rides. I give KI huge props to the amount of characters they have out and the live entertainment offerings. That is part of what makes Winterfest amazing. I haven`t been to any Six Flags` Holiday in the Park, but I doubt they compare to Kings Island`s Winterfest.

Sure, anything is possible, for a price. Coaster stations generally aren`t set up to be converted into restrooms. While there likely is a water supply out to the building (for hose bibbs), there very likely is no sanitary line out to the building. Depending how close the nearest sanitary line is, it might not be feasible to extend it out. By the time all is said and done, if a restroom is planned in that area, it would likely be cheaper to build a new one from scratch verses trying to convert a building (coaster station or otherwise) into restrooms. I agree that it would be nice to have restrooms back by Flight of Fear. Hopefully, a set of restrooms is included with any future improvements in that area.

I suppose it would be possible. Whether GCI would approve it, is another question. I know that they did release a new version of their trains at IAAPA this year. Keep in mind that rolling stock on coasters is very expensive. And since PTC is still in business and providing parts, the park likely does not have a reason to replace the trains.

But if they went with Millennium Flyers, the capacity would suffer. I think they max out at twelve cars, which would be 24 riders per train. Currently Beast has 36 people per train. That is a pretty significant reduction in capacity.

Yes, that would be correct. Nice to see things moving along. April will be here before we know it!

Ask and you shall receive: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/05/06/slated-to-become-two-hotels-fourth-and-walnut.html Fourth and Walnut street. The Daniel Burnam designed building is still standing today.

When they had the Nickelodeon Celebration Parade back in 2005 and 2006 as well as the Winterfest Parade back in 2005, the parade started in the back of house area in Planet Snoopy. It continued past the blue ice cream stand, in front of the family care station/Chik Fil A, on the front side of the Eiffel Tower, past the funnel cake building, into Coney Mall (on the Subway side) and exited the park midways at the gate behind Zephyr. I would imagine if a parade ever returns, that it will take a similar route through the park.

Thanks for sharing these. Those images are incredible. Hopefully you have success in your research. If you do, please share with us what you find!

We are talking about the entrance right by Magnum correct? That was completely reconstructed last year (2017) as part of the Cedar Point Shores project. Below is an image of the resort entrance I am referring to. Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/ITvUy

The resort entrance (which is combined with the Magnum photo booth), is only a couple of years old.

I don`t know. Comcast seems pretty intent to invest in their parks. If they end up adding the Nintendo IP to the fourth gate I think it will be quite impressive. Spoken by someone who grew up playing Super Nintendo and N64.

But there are also competing forces. When you have other places like Target offering $12 an hour, it becomes harder to attract employees to a seasonal job making less than that amount. I know that at Coney, where we offered $9 an hour this pas season, we still had a hard time keeping things staffed. This was the first year where Coney offered more than minimum wage, and that was in an attempt just to attract enough employees. I agree on the festival front. If this comes to fruition it will be nice. The Nickelodeon Celebration Parade that ran in 2005 and 2006 (and the Winterfest Parade in 2005), added a lot of excitement to the park. The Nick Parade traveled around to all of the parks, so it was only at each park for a couple of weeks. It was well done and had a Disney vibe to it. I am excited to see what develops from this and would assume it would be a temporary event similar to the Nick Parade. It would definitely add some excitement to the park, and I would love to take my son to see it!

Not sure if it was a change for this season, but Cedar Point is no longer open until 11pm during weekdays in July like they used to be for years. They close at 10pm except on Fridays and Saturdays in July when they are open until midnight. So they are saving labor costs on five hours of operational time every week in July. There are other ways to save labor costs besides limiting hours. I would suspect we will see more self ordering kiosks and automation where they can to save on labor.

Congrats to ride crews at Kings Island, Valleyfair, Holiday World and The Park at OWA. At Coney, we train using the "Ten Critical Components" that are referenced in the news release. My direct report boss (the Director of Operations at Coney), has attended the Ride Operator Safety Schools the past couple of years.

https://www.carnival.com/onboard/bolt-ultimate-sea-coaster This looks like a very interesting concept, and a totally cool idea! The layout looks pretty cool too. I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise this past February with my family. It was a fun experience (including riding the on board water slides). One day, I would love to go on a Disney Cruise, but those are pretty pricey.

I wouldn`t necessarily say it was a "beloved" ride. Yes, it was iconic. But it was not a ride that was very re-rideable. I would take Banshee any day over Son of Beast. I am sure the park didn`t care for the ride after all the money they sunk into it trying to make it an enjoyable ride. The pre-recorded spiel they had playing in the station even stated that "Son of Beast is a high speed, forceful, turbulent ride..." How often to you hear a safety warning discussing a ride as turbulent. I believe another park (might have been Hercules at Dorney) that had a sign that said to expect "intense ride jostling".

That is all part of the Easter eggs that have been woven into the story. Much like those Flight of Fear bulletin boards with news clippings. Those were not original, but showed up after a certain person started working in that area of the park. That person no longer works at the park (they used to post on here a lot, but I haven`t seen them recently).

I only rode Ghoster Coaster once. It had horrid capacity. Each car/train only held two people. The one time I rode the ride was on a day when the park was very empty in Sunday October (around 1999 or 2000). There were only about ten people ahead of us in line, and we still had to wait nearly fifteen minutes to ride. It was not a very fun ride either.

I have to wonder on the timing to open a fourth gate. How long did it take them to build Islands of Adventure when it opened in 1999? I am sure that Disney will have a huge hit on their hands next year when Star Wars Galaxy`s Edge opens at Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. I still hear wonderful things about Pandora at Animal Kingdom, particularly the Flight of Passage ride, as being one of the most incredible ride experiences people have ever been on, so it should be interesting to see what Star Wars has. Universal struck it big with Harry Potter. But now it seems like Disney is firing on all cylinders in Florida. Not to say Universal hasn`t been doing new things (new Harry Potter attraction under construction at Islands of Adventure and their Volcano Bay water park. It certainly is giving people a reason to not just visit Disney when they go to Orlando. My next visit down there will be to the house of mouse though, because my son loves all things Mickey.

And that is not without precedent at Cedar Fair. Carowinds did a Great Carolina Fest this past year that featured food from the Carolinas. Knott`s also does their Boysenberry festival. I could see KI doing something similar. Remember the focus of late has been on having special events throughout the season that spark a sense of urgency to visit the park (thus increasing visits and the odds that pass holders will spend money inside of the parks).

I don`t know who designed the Octoberfest buildings. I know Anthony Daniels (a UC grad), designed many of the original buildings at Kings Island (as well as many of the buildings at Coney in the 60s, with the current games building being one of his projects). More recently, the buildings have been designed by two Cincinnati architecture firms, RSL Commercial Architecture (http://www.rslarch.com/) and TRA Design (http://tra-design.net/portfolio-type/entertainment/).

And it looks like they have an ice skating Snoopy show. I think that would do a lot better in the Kings Island Theater than the current production that is in there.

I am curious, what kind of live entertainment offerings does Knott`s have for their Knott`s Merry Christmas event? Do they have this show, or do they utilize a different Peanuts themed show?

I agree. I still love the way they put the lights on the buildings at Dollywood. The attention to detail and the different color lights that they use is simply amazing.

I believe that Mystic Timbers has a minimum start up temperature. It was 33 when I got to the park last night at 4:45. Mystic Timbers never opened last night as the temperature only dropped. There were still people pouring in when I left around 7:30.